Writers--What's Stopping You?

 

Three little words in our photo today. "What's stopping you?" Good question for writers. We have goals in our writing life. We have dreams of what we would like to achieve. We sometimes concentrate on small projects, ones we are confident will bring us a bit of success.

But when it comes to the big writing projects, many of us come to a screeching halt. Write a book? Whoa! That's hard work and maybe fruitless as it's so hard to get a book published. Write a series of small books? Same problem. What about writing your family stories? You think about it but somehow never get that first step taken.

Poets have a folder filled with poems, but why aren't they organizing them into a book? Excuses abound. Again, taking that first step is the hardest part. 

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) started in 1999. It was presented as a challenge for writers around the world to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. Do the math to see how many words that might be per day. I've often wondered why November was selected as it is the beginning of holidays that require extra bits of time, leaving us less time to write. One has to be totally committed to accept this challenge, but thousands take up the baton and start running with it on November 1st. NaNoWriMo is a good example of the "What's stopping you?" question. I applaud those who accept the challenge. 

What does stop us from attempting bigger writing projects? Doubt and fear play a large part. To take on a big project, we must believe in ourself, in our ability as a writer. Another reason is that we can easily convince ourself that it is too much work. And then we say that we probably aren't going to be successful so why start? Mr. Doubt again! One more reason is that we don't have the time it takes. If you're a part time writer with another job or other responsibilities, that's a legitimate concern. 

If it's merely fear and doubt, consider it as an excuse rather than a reason. Time to give yourself a pep talk. Time to be the little engine who kept telling himself he could pull that much bigger engine. He believed he could, and so it happened. 

Maybe the question of "What's stopping you?" is one you should answer even when it comes to the smaller writing projects, the shorter ones. It may be time to look yourself in the mirror, ask the question and give an answer.